Web Frameworks Roundup

14 February 2008

Many web developers are still not using web frameworks. Why? Probably because they’re relatively new, so they probably haven’t studied up on them yet.

What is a web framework? It’s a suite of tools already written in your language of choice that follow the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm. The idea being, there are certain parts of web sites and applications that you often find yourself re-writing for each and every new project. By using a web framework, you can turn web development into an object-oriented process (so that you can follow a somewhat-normal software development process) and adhere to principles like DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) and KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Here is a current list of the top web frameworks:

Catalyst - The Perl web framework. Claim to fame: “No complicated object hierarchies” and you can use CPAN to grab the packages you need.

Django - (Pronounced Zhango) The Python web framework. Claim to fame: Automatic admin interface for your site and you don’t need to know any SQL.

Ruby on Rails - The Ruby web framework. Claim to fame: “Convention over configuration” and most popular. Beware of the Pluralizer.

Symfony - The PHP web framework. Claim to fame: It’s written in PHP, a language that most web developers are already familiar with.